Surviving a 5,000-Mile Road Trip with Your Family Using Kolbe Wisdom™

How do you travel for 17 days across 16 states with your family of 4 in a cramped vehicle and live to tell the tale? 

If you’re Tashyna Wingo, Director of Operations at Kolbe Corp, you survive by understanding and accounting for everyone’s instinctive needs! 

In this episode, Tashyna recounts her 5,800 mile long “great American family road trip” in a conversation with Nicole Loucks, VP of Youth & Education Programs at Kolbe. They delve into the dynamics of a family road trip, highlighting the unique ways each family member's instinctive strengths played out during the journey and how Tashyna managed to navigate those strengths and keep everyone happy. They also cover some Kolbe resources and ideas that are helpful for families in general. 

If you’re looking for insights into how to better support the loved ones in your life (and who isn’t), this is the Powered by Instinct episode for you! 

Host: Nicole Loucks (5824)

Guest-at-a-Glance 

💡 Name: Tashyna Wingo (8543)

💡What they do: Director of Operations 

💡Company: Kolbe Corp 

💡Noteworthy: Orchestrated a cross-country family road trip, hitting 16 states, and used knowledge of Kolbe Strengths™ to make sure everyone’s needs were met 

💡 Where to find them: LinkedIn 

Understanding Children's Strengths in Education 

Nicole highlights the Student Aptitude Quiz, a conative assessment tailored for kids. This tool helps children understand their strengths and how to leverage them in areas they're passionate about, such as excelling in school. Tashyna shares her personal experience, noting how an online, self-paced environment allowed her daughter Madeline to thrive, given her unique approach to problem-solving. 

 
Empowering Teachers with Kolbe Insights 

Tashyna reveals that she encourages her son's teachers to take the Kolbe Index every year. This initiative helps educators understand their unique strengths and how they approach problem-solving. By sharing these insights, Tashyna aims to foster a more supportive and understanding educational environment for her son and his peers. 

Challenges and Disagreements on the Road 

Nicole probes Tashyna about the challenges and disagreements they faced during the road trip. Tashyna shares some light-hearted moments, like siblings' squabbles in the backseat. She also mentions a recurring point of contention with her husband, Tom, about how they measured travel progress: hours vs. miles. 

"I'd say probably the only disagreements that Tom and I had, and it took me a little too long to get with the program, but he'd ask me how, like going from location to location, you know, what are we looking at? And so I would say it's two and a half hours. And he's like, ‘I don't care about the hours. I wanna know how many miles…" - Tashyna

Empowering Students with Kolbe Insights 

The conversation shifts to the importance of understanding students' natural strengths. Nicole recalls how Henry actively participated during a Strengths Week project at school. Tashyna emphasizes the value of the Student Aptitude Quiz and how it has benefited her children. 

"And I have to say, when we went into the school and did that Strengths Week project, Henry was our helper with physical materials. He was passing things out; he was carrying things; he was doing all sorts of stuff."